General knowledge is most definetly based upon where you live. I definitely cannot name the 6 states of Australia, because somehow Australia isn't a common topic at all in US schools. It's just "the place where they have kangaroos and koalas," to most Americans... People learn what is relative to their surroundings, mostly, meaning a relatively secluded place will not teach its children of the whole world, but only the parts around it.

I guess you can't expect people to know all of the details about their country, especially if it's a huge country like the US or China, or a place with many languages/dialects, like Japan or India. But... yeah. If you watch the news, you end up at least learning something about other countries, even if it is a biased opinion.

As has been pointed out in this thread, there are stupid people everywhere.

There are many factors, I think, that contribute to why people don't get educated or don't retain things from their education. In the US, for example, cultural emphasis is not on education.

Here in Japan, I think the thing that contributes to the ignorance of some is the point of education. In general, the education system in Japan is designed, not to help people better themselves, but to help people pass an entrance exam.

Just for example, you have to ask what's going on when students are being asked to memorize lists of author names, dates when those authors wrote certain books, and the titles of said books - and yet never read a single word in any of those texts!

There was a study that I read recently that showed Japan, in a group of industrial nations, having the worst record for retention of things learned in school. In other words, adults in their late 20s and 30s were very poor when tested on their knowledge of things that they should have studied back in middle school and high school. (I'll see if I can't dig up this report - I seem to remember it being on-line.)

If true, it would support the idea that Japanese students: study test-taking strategies, memorize pertinant information, take the test and, if they pass it, never bother thinking about the material again.

I know this happens in other countries, as well, but here it's practically institutionalized.

wow thats the opposite of me...I'm the kind of kid who as a junior can tell you what science topics I was learning during this time of the year, two years ago and in the corresponding middle school course(freshman year- something to do with cells..., middle school- end of learning about tree life cycle.) I also don't take notes because it takes too much work and distracts me. I have a great mental capacity for memorizing things and retaining it though if I don't think of it as nessessary information my mind forgets as quickly as i learn it. One time I forgot the my birthday for almost half a year....

Anyway enough rambling about things that don't make sense. Common knowledge is determined by you and your peers. It isn't actually based on what country you live in but by what group of people you hang out with. If you hang out with the kind of people who don't know where their own country is on a map then you probably don't consider it general knowledge and neither would your friends. If you hang out with people who geo-wizes then you'd probably think that those people weren't that smart. Another example of this is inside jokes. I don't feel like explaining this though so...bleh

And now you know cuz its mike's super short show.

Last edited by datdo on Mon 11.06.2006 1:50 am, edited 1 time in total.

datdo wrote:.........Common knowledge is determined by you and your peers. It isn't actually based on what country you live in but by what group of people you hang out with ..............

"Common knowledge" is not the same thing as "general knowledge".

tanuki wrote:....... I was shocked by some of the results for Mexico. Only 54% knew where Argentina is .......

IIRC the question on Argentina also had Brazil as on of the choices which could have made it harder for those people that had a rough idea but weren't 100% sure. Conversely the question on Sweden had neither Norway or Finland as choices so if you new Sweden was in Scandinavia you were home and hosed.

What surprised me was that more French people correctly selected the USA than Americans

Don't complain to me that people kick you when you're down. It's your own fault for lying there